


Left Alone

by Whitejj01



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Flagship Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 12:44:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whitejj01/pseuds/Whitejj01
Summary: Annabeth was excited.She knew she was supposed to be the logical one, and leaving two teens alone to manage an apartment together over spring break wasn't logical at all-But she couldn't help herself. A whole week with Percy, uninterrupted by anyone.  They didn't have to go to work, or pay rent. They could do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't burn down the apartment.She already knew what she wanted to do.Nothing happening yet, but maybe soon :)





	1. The Beginning

Annabeth was excited.

She knew she was supposed to be the logical one, and leaving two teens alone to manage an apartment together over spring break wasn't logical at all-

But she couldn't help herself. A whole week with Percy, uninterrupted by anyone. Anyone at all. They didn't have to go to work, or pay rent. They didn't have to go through camp Half-Blood's activity schedule (camp would start in June, over a month away). They could do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't burn down the apartment.

She already knew what she wanted to do.

 

Moving enough stuff for an entire week into Percy's apartment had been a little bit difficult, but not too bad, thanks to Annabeth's dad. He'd been surprisingly okay with this crazy plan that Percy's mother had come up with, and he'd been bonding well with Percy's step-father, Paul. All the adults seemed to think that Annabeth would keep Percy under control, but she wasn't sure she wanted him under control. She'd never had this degree of freedom before - there'd always been someone looking over her shoulder. Now that she was completely free of supervision and scrutiny, she wanted to just be with Percy. That was it.

She wanted to eat breakfast next to him and run errands with him, and she wanted to watch movies and play board games with him. Sally's argument had been, "Annabeth is logical and smart, not to mention responsible. Percy won't be able to do anything he shouldn't with her around."

This was true in normal situations, but Annabeth wanted nothing more than to do things the way normal teenagers would, and some of that wasn't considered 'appropriate' by the adults. She wanted it anyway, though. She wasn't planning on having sex with him - but it could happen. And similar, lower-level stuff would definitely occur. She wasn't going to waste this blissful week of peace and quiet with her boyfriend, Just because she wasn't deemed 'Ready for it' by the parentals.

 

There were, however, some aspects of Athena's nature that couldn't be stopped by love or lust - or anything else, for that matter. She'd still created a backup plan - and a backup plan for the backup plan -  for every day they'd be together, and there were three separate ways they'd be able to contact their parents, should something go wrong.

As Annabeth moved the last of her things into the spare bedroom, Paul and Sally checked over everything, making sure nothing was going to break or explode while they were gone, and making sure that they were ready for a week on their own. The spare bedroom was a precaution, just in case Percy pissed her off, or she needed a separate bed to sleep in. She'd be sleeping with Percy, as she always did to stave off the nightmares, unless something went wrong.

"Here's a set of keys, Annabeth," Sally said, handing them to her. "This one's for the apartment, and this one's for the Prius, and this one's for the mailbox."

"Thanks."

Mrs. Jackson looked at Annabeth like a proud mother, which she was. "I hope you two have some fun. We'll be back by eight o'clock on sunday, okay?"

Annabeth's brain did a quick count-up and realized that they were going to have an extra day, on top of what she'd been told. Sally smiled knowingly, like she could read Annabeth's mind, but said nothing. She had a feeling that it had been planned that way the whole time, but it was meant to be a nice little surprise for the two teens.

"Alright - We're gonna go, you two," Mr. Blofis called a few minutes later. Annabeth walked to the front door, Percy following a few seconds later. They all hugged and said goodbye, have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do (that last one was Percy joking with his mom).

 

And they left. Just like that, they were gone. As soon as she could no longer hear the sounds of their footsteps, she went to hug Percy, but he got to her first - colliding with her gleefully, smiling and laughing and embracing her warmly. Annabeth squealed with delight, and Percy laughed, loving the adorable sound. Pure excitement flooded the tiny apartment, the two teens practically jumping for joy. As they calmed down, Annabeth pulled back to look at him. 

"So what should we do first?" She asked, still grinning from ear to ear.

Percy glanced around the room for ideas and then stared her in the eyes, uttering the most serious words he'd ever said in his life: "Let's build a fort."

Annabeth loved the idea. She'd get to design it, be the Athena kid she wanted to be, while still being with Percy in a way that he'd love. To hide her excitement, she put on her thinking-face.

"Hmmm," She hummed, play-acting like it was still a question in her mind. "Alright. But you have to help me clean up afterwards."

"Alriiight," he groaned, playing along.

 

They gathered couch-cushions and pillows, along with blankets and a random string of colored lights that Annabeth found in a closet.

Once they'd collected everything, She stared into the pile, the plan coming together in her head.

"Alright," she said decisively, "Start putting the cushions up as walls. And leave the smaller pillows alone for now."

For the next thirty minutes, Annabeth was in command, and Percy was happy to be her loyal helper. She instructed, and he constructed, and when they were done, they had created the most magnificent pillow fort either of them had ever seen.

With an Athena girl at the helm, it had been built for strength. The thickest cushions were used as outer walls, while the huge blankets were pulled taut across the top of the complex. The interior walls were constructed from the smaller pillows, which, remarkably, were very strong, despite being what you'd expect a pillow to be - not a rectangular prism, but a square that bulged in the middle.

Each of the three rooms were large enough for both of them to lay down in side by side (Annabeth had removed a table to accomplish this), and they were almost tall enough for the teens to stand upright in, thanks to Percy's brillant idea of anchoring the blankets at the top of the fridge and at the doorways. She was fairly sure he'd done this just to have access to the fridge, it was still a great idea - her boyfriend was smarter than everyone gave him credit for, even if he still didn't know what a hypotenuse was.

He high-fived Annabeth, breathing hard from crawling all over the place on all fours. "Did I do a good job?" 

"Yes, you did a really good job, seaweed brain. I'm actually really impressed."

He flopped over onto his back. "Thanks."

"You want a coke?" She asked, trying not to laugh at his antics. "I'm going to the fridge anyway."

Percy nodded.

She went around the fort to the fridge, grabbing two cokes off of the top shelf, and jogged back.

She snuck up on Percy and pressed the ice-cold can against his exposed neck to spook him. His eyes snapped open and he scrambled away, but she followed him. He swatted at her arm, laughing and pushing away the frozen treat against his neck. She removed it and held it out to him, giggling at the way he'd scrambled back straight into a wall.

"Wise girl!" he said in an mock-admonishing tone, snatching the drink playfully out of her hand. "Don't do that!"

"Why?" She replied innocently, looking at him with a defiance that he'd seen in his visions of a younger Annabeth. This time, luckily, it was playful.

"Because you scared me! Oh, I am totally getting revenge." He dove towards her, Annabeth quickly getting up and jogging away from the threat. He followed, hurrying after her and catching her at the edge of the living room (or what was left of it).

He tackled her, coming down onto the soft carpet with a thump. He sat on her feet to keep her from getting away and started tickling her sides. Annabeth rolled from side to side, giggling uncontrollably, being tortured by this terrible boy that for some crazy reason she had decided was cute when she was 12. Despite her protests, he refused to stop until she could barely breathe. He rolled over next to her and she immediately straddled his waist. Her hands jumped to his sides, getting a little revenge of her own. She didn't go as far as he had, stopping when his breathing got uneven and flopping back down next to him, breathing almost as hard as he was and laughing twice as much. They sat there for a full minute, just breathing and drinking in the sight of each other. Annabeth's blonde curls spilled all over the carpet, looking from the floor like a wave of gold. She looked amazing today in her blue shirt and purple-ish sweatpants, her hair and eyes matching perfectly. Percy's outfit was basically the same as his girlfriend's, with his T-shirt being a lighter blue and his sweatpants being black, with socks to match the shirt.

"So... Are we going to actually go inside this fort we built?" Percy asked after a minute, his ADHD finally getting to him.

"Yeah - c'mon," Annabeth said, boosting her self off the floor lightly and elegantly. They padded over to the entrance, which had a foot-thick cushion wrapped in a blanket serving as its door. Annabeth pulled it back and went inside. She hadn't planned out the interior- she'd left that to Percy. Everything she saw was a surprise to her, from the smaller pillows set against the walls to those christmas lights, which he had strung over the top of the 'bedroom'. Annabeth had designed it roughly so that this room had a view, nestled up against the only low window in the apartment, and percy had given it light so that they could actually sleep in it if they wanted to.

The next room, which didn't have a proper name yet, was the largest of the three. It had been built around the living room, with the couches (which Percy had turned outward at her instruction) forming the walls, and the TV sitting at the head of the room. They did have to stay bent-double in this room, but it was fine, since they'd mostly be laying down in here to watch TV anyway.

The third room served as the entrance and the atrium, big enough to allow one person at a time through.

"Are you sure you want to take this down?" He asked, already knowing the answer and liking it.

She shook her head, smiling at him. "Well, At least, not for a couple days," she said. Percy grinned triumphantly.

 

That night, they slept in the fort. After watching TV for a while (wrath of the titans), Annabeth decided she wanted to, and Percy was content to follow her example. He grabbed a few extra blankets and made a soft bed just wide enough for both of them, While she grabbed his pajamas for him along with her own.

" _Di immortales_ , seaweed brain," she muttered to herself, "when was the last time you organized this dresser?" She took care of it for him while he took a shower and grabbed his pajama shirt and pants.

Once he'd changed, he helped her, lightly slipping the owl-patterened button-down shirt over her arms, and then slowly did up one button after the other, while she enjoyed the feeling of his hands brushing against her stomach.

Ever since she'd been blinded for the first time, this had become a kind of secret between them: every once in a while, whenever she was in the mood for romance or felt that he'd earned it, she'd let him help her undress and get ready for bed. It wasn't sexual, just like the first time they'd done it - it was purely a show of affection and love for one another. It was beautiful, a testament to just how good romance could get if you were careful.

She tugged off her sweatpants - she wouldn't let Percy do that part just yet - and he slid the new ones slowly up and along her legs, making her shiver. She lifted her butt up off the ground to allow him to finish the job, sliding them into place over her hips more neatly than she would've expected - she didn't have to adjust them even a little bit.

 

Once they finished getting ready, they sat with the blanket draped over their legs and read book after book. Percy sat there, curled around her like a protective shield, but eventually he got too tired to continue. "5 more pages," she told him. 

An hour later they were still reading, Annabeth softly narrating for Percy. At a break in the chapters, Percy piped up.

"Annabeth," he growled softly, "Let's get some sleep."

"5 more pages," she said again. 

"That's what you said an hour ago," he replied with a wry smile. "Cmon."

He slowly tugged on her waist, pulling her gently backwards into the blanket-bed, her head coming to rest on his shoulder.

He carefully grasped the book and inserted a bookmark, sliding it downward along the page until it tapped her fingernail. Gently pulling the book out of her hands and setting it beside the bed, he rolled her over and scooted down to line up with her.

"Seaweed brain," she said, seemingly too comfortable to move, "could you grab some Tylenol or something for me, please? My head hurts."

"Come here," he said soothingly, pulling her head towards him and planting a kiss among her blonde curls.

"I'll go grab some," he said. "You wait here."

 

A minute later her sweet boyfriend came back with the bottle, holding two in this hand. Walking back towards her, their big toes collided at speed, eliciting a yelp from the girl on the ground and a grunt from Percy. Once he realized what he'd hit, he bent down to look at her big toe.

"Is it okay?" He asked caringly. 

She sighed, wincing every few seconds. "It's alright, Percy."

He sat down next to her, looking miserable now.

Despite her pain, Annabeth saw this and put her hand on his shoulder gently. "What's wrong, Percy?"

He gulped down a lump of sadness. "I spoiled the mood. I'm sorry, I knew I'd screw something up."

"Well, of course you would," Annabeth replied.

"What?"

"That wasn't what I meant. I meant that nobody's perfect. Some little thing is always going to go wrong, and there's ... nothing you can do about it." As she said it, she realized it was really true. Sometimes, even the best plans went wrong.

"Oh.. okay then," Percy said. "Is the mood still spoiled?"

"Well," she said, suddenly nervous for no good reason, "I'm not really... in the mood to do anything right now, if that's what you mean."

She saw his face fall a little, but he quickly hid it.

"I'm sorry, Percy," she assuaged, "I do want to, but I'm just not really... ready right now. But first thing in the morning, once I'm awake, I'll be ready, okay?"

A little bit of the excitement came back into his eyes. "Are you sure? I don't..." He hesitated. "I said before I didn't want to push you into anything if you weren't ready."

"I'm ready, Percy - I want you right now," she soothed. "It's just not quite the right timing, that's all."

She rubbed his shoulder. "C'mon, baby. Let's get some sleep."

Ever since his nightmare episode, Annabeth had used that endearing nickname whenever they were alone and he needed comfort. She said it like a mother would, the syllables slightly seperated, taking care of her boyfriend, being so gentle and careful and caring.

"The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner we wake up," she said. She'd been telling the truth when she said she wanted him, but tomorrow morning was really for his benefit. She wouldn't mind it (would you?), but it wouldn't have the romanticism that would be there if she were really into the idea as much as he was.

"Well, goodnight, Annabeth," he said. "Here, you said you wanted these. He held out his hand and she took the capsules of medicine and popped them quickly into her mouth, chewing them and savoring the grape flavor.

"Goodnight, seaweed brain," she said softly, "I'll see you in the morning."

 


	2. Day 1

9 O'clock.

 

He let her sleep until 9 O'clock in the morning. Gods, he was sweet.

 

When she opened her eyes, for a minute, she actually thought he was still dreaming of some wondrous landscape - surrounded by pillows and blankets and multi-colored lights. Then, slowly, the reality came flooding back to her - and for once, it was  _so_ much better than a dream. She and her boyfriend had been left alone for an entire week, starting today, and they were worry-free.

 

She sat up, and curiosity filled her - although it was still warm, her boyfriend's spot next to her on the makeshift blanket bed was empty. Knowing him, he had probably wandered cluelessly off, half naked, to find out why he was sleeping in a cushion-filled wonderland instead of his own bed.

Annabeth slowly got up and spun around onto her hands and knees. she crawled through the entrance to their bedroom and stood up before walking past the 'living room', taking a right turn and stooping down again to reach the kitchen entrance.

 

As she went through it, she saw Percy - or rather, his rear end -  ahead of her, positioned in front of the stove. As she watched, he tried desperately to finish... what was that? Were those blue pancakes? She could see one hanging off the edge of the counter, threatening to fall onto the wooden floor below.

_Oh_ , she thought.  _He's trying to surprise me._  

She didn't want to spoil it, so she crawled back to her bed and laid down again, closing her eyes. A few minutes later, she heard the sounds of plates sliding across the Jacksons' kitchen table, and the sound of her boyfriend coming towards her.

 

"Good morning, Wise girl." he said in a quiet, soothing voice. His hand slid across her shoulder, trailing down to her hip and then repeating the process. "I made breakfast for you."

She opened her eyes slowly. "What'd you make?" she asked in a sleepy, peaceful voice which she didn't have to try very hard to pull off.

 

A mischevious look came into his eyes. "Why don't you come and see?"

He grabbed her hand and slowly scuttled sideways, the way a monkey would after grabbing a banana. 

"Oh, are you pretending to be a monkey this morning?" She asked, teasing him with a mocking tone.

He looked down at his strange stance. "Not on purpose," he said, and she giggled.

"Hold on one minute, seaweed brain." She got up again, careful not to hit him with her feet at close quarters.

He pulled her hand, and they escaped the bedroom, heading once again toward the kitchen.

 

As she stood up and glanced at tale, she was surprised - not by the blue pancakes, which she'd already accidentally seen - but by the elegance of the actual table. He'd used nice plates, and poured orange juice for the two of them, and set the table properly.

"Do you like it?" he asked, maybe a little nervous.

She threw her arms around him. "Do I Like it?" She laughed. "I love it! How early did you get up to cook all this for us?"

Now he definitely looked nervous, bouncing from one foot to the other and blushing slightly. "7:30," He replied.

She slapped his shoulder playfully. "Gods, Percy, that was so thoughtful of you." She gave him a kiss as a reward, and then remebered something.

"Uh, Percy? Don't you remember, last night? I said I'd be okay with... having a little fun, once we woke up. Did you forget about that?"

 

In truth, he had completely forgotten. However, now that he'd remembered, he already knew what he would've said.

"I could kind of see that your heart wasn't in it." He looked at her. "It was really nice of you to offer that...  and do that, just for me, but... something like this seemed more important. Your happiness was more important than mine."

Suffice it to say he got another kiss, this one longer and deeper than the last.

 

When they pulled away for air, She stared into his eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to-?"

"I'm sure," he said. "It's not the right time, and I'm not going to force it."

He pushed her lightly. "And how come you have to be so generous all the time? You shouldn't have changed your mind just 'cause I asked for something."

"You deserved it, seaweed brain. Look at all this!" She gestured around her at the fort and the wonderful breakfast. "You deserve way more than what I'm giving you."

"Let's talk about it some more over breakfast, okay?" He moved towards the table. "Even deserving Percys need food."

"That's true," She replied, feeling her own stomach growl unexpectedly.

 

Even the pancakes were more than she expected. Her first bite caught her unawares with a strangely familiar flavor. Chewing, she moved the fork (with a piece of pancake still on it) to eye-level and examined the fluffy morsel.

"Seaweed brain?" She asked, without taking her eyes off of her food. "Are these... blueberries?"

"Yup," he said. She'd never had blueberry pancakes before, but there was a bigger issue at the moment.

She tapped his chin. "No talking with your mouth full. This is my house, and my rules apply."

He swallowed a barely-chewed bite the size of the Chrysler Building, nearly giving her her a heart attack.

"And actually chew your food, next time," she mock-scolded. "I don't want to have finally finished fighting monsters, only for you to die from asphyxiation by pancake."

"So... no huge bites?" He asked, not understanding the big word. "Smaller words, please."

"No huge bites," She confirmed. "I don't want you to choke."

"Yes ma'am," He smiled. He had little crumbs of pancake stuck to his teeth.

 

 

When Apollo showed up and offered to whisk them off, she was tempted. Really, she was.

But the whole point if this was to experience a normal week in the life of a pair of college kids - which meant no teleporting to rome for the day, as much as she would've loved it.

One minute, she and Percy were sitting around in a post-breakfast stupor, watching weekend cartoons on the couch. The next, they were momentarily blinded by the appearance of one of Annabeth's least favorite gods- Apollo.

"Greetings, Percy Jackson!" He said loudly. Then he took notice of annabeth leaning against him.

"And..."

"Annabeth Chase," she supplied.

"And Annabeth Chase!"

Percy looked slightly mortified, but not at all surprised with this new development. "Hey Apollo," he sighed, "Good to see that you're godly again." 

"Isn't it?" He seemed very happy about  _something_ , but Percy couldn't tell what.

Annabeth didn't like this interruption of her time with Percy at all, but she went with the diplomatic approach.

"What... brings you here, Lord Apollo?" she asked, her voice sounding like she was trying to tiptoe on a tightrope.

"You brought me here! Or more specifically, your boyfriend did," he explained, grinning emphatically. "He chose to assist me in January when Zeus revoked my godly powers, and I said I would reward him, so here I am! Now, what would you like as a reward?"

Various items began to appear in his hand as he spoke. "Would you like a twinkie? A day trip to Europe, perhaps? Or maybe you would prefer front-row tickets to a baseball game."

"That second one sounded good," Percy said. He nodded not-so-dicreetly toward his girlfriend, earning him a light smack on the arm from the girl in question.

He turned toward her. "What? I thought you'd love that idea."

"I would, Percy, but we're supposed to be doing things that normal college kids would do. Normal kids don't just go to Europe for a day-trip, especially not if you're going to go to a university that says going there is prohibited to begin with."

He looked at her with the cute-baby-seal face. "Can we at least take the baseball tickets?" he pleaded. "College kids go to baseball games all the time!"

She tried to resist that adorable face, but she just couldn't. "Oh, all right," she conceded. "Lord Apollo? We'd like the tickets, please."

 

Apollo had been looking on with a mixture of horror and curiosity. "This woman can control you and your actions? Do you approve her choice?"

"Yeah," Percy replied. "She's pretty good at it, too. And if I tried to approve anything that she did, she'd probably kick my butt."

"Yep," Annabeth confirmed.

"It is still your reward. Do you agree with her?"

Percy nodded in reply, and Apollo set the tickets on the coffee table and promptly disappeared, leaving a whiff of ozone behind him.

 

The tickets were for a Yankees game on Tuesday, which was three days away, so Annabeth added it to their schedule. She didn't think Percy would ever forgive her if they missed it.

 

Their next two hours were spent away from the house, in Central Park. Percy sat on the banks of the lake and made small bubbles of water float over Annabeth's head and then pop, releasing several cubic feet of mist. She found this to be only mildly annoying, since she'd covered her homework for spring break in a plastic sleeve. It was also keeping her cool on what was an unusually warm day.

Before they'd started the break, Annabeth had made an agreement with her boyfriend that she would help him with his homework in return for as many cuddles as she wanted, whenever she wanted. Needless to say, Percy was alright with this, and so was Annabeth.

 Eventually, Percy got bored with bubbles and crawled over to Annabeth. The fine layer of water droplets on top of her hair made it look like she was wearing a hairnet made of diamonds. 

Percy crawled over and tapped lightly on the sole of her left foot, at which she flinched a bit. Not satisfied, he began to wiggle each one of the toes on her bare feet to elicit a response, but to no effect. After that, he lifted her foot off of the ground and peered at her from under it. "Are you done yet?" he asked in a whiny, child-like tone.

 

She shook her head, trying desperately to focus on the paper in front of her, and her dumb boyfriend seemed to get the message.

"O-kay," he sighed. I'll just go back over there."

He crawled back over and sat down.

 

Several minutes later, she finished. She looked up to tell Percy that they could do something fun now, but Percy wasn't there.

_No, no, where did he go!?_

He wouldn't have just left her there alone, in the middle of Central Park.

Maybe he'd gotten himself captured by some monster? But... she hadn't heard any noise.

She glanced around, beginning to panick, and called, "PERCY? WHERE ARE YOU?"

Suddenly, with a sound like a giant mist-bubble popping over her head, Percy shot out of the lake, landing at a horrible angle on the bank about 50 yards to her left. She sprinted towards him and found him moaning, holding hs head. He didn't seem to have broken anything, despite the high speed ejection from the lake and the collision with the shore.

"What happened?" she asked frantically, checking him over for injuries and thankfully finding none.

He coughed up a few drops of water. "The nyads in this lake don't like me."

A bell went off in Annabeth's head, and she put her hands on her hips, frowning. "What did you do?"

 

He was about to look guilty, but then a boulder sailed out of the lake, running a direct intercept course to the spot where they were currently sitting.

"MOVE!" Percy shouted, and both of them scrambled to the side as the 2-ton chunk of rock smashed into the shoreline, leaving an impact crater almost large enough to encircle their prius.

"Let's go," Annabeth said, and Percy nodded. The two sprinted back to the prius and didn't look back until they were at the door of their apartment building.

"Well, I guess there's just not much a demigod can do outdoors these days," Percy said belatedly.

"There might be a bit more if you hadn't made them mad!" She folded her arms over her chest.

"Hey, all I did was say hi, and they were all,  _You must leave now,_ and then they shot me out of the lake!"

She just shook her head and mumbled something about _~~~~stupid boys,_ which he was sure had nothing to do with him.

"C'mon, seaweed brain," she said, "Let's go get you rinsed off."

She turned the key in the lock, the door swung open, and they went up the stairs, back to the apartment.

 

 

An hour later, Annabeth was still miserable that her plan for the day had gone wrong. She'd hoped that it would be easy, but she shouldn't have expected it - nothing was ever easy for demigods. Percy tried to tell her it was okay, but as an Athena girl, she relied on plans - being unprepared and screwing up everything was an unending fear for her, and now it had become reality. It would be a while before she was okay with messing up.

Percy walked back in and sat down criss-crossed on the pillow-covered floor with a container of ice cream in his arms.

He held it out to her. "Here, Wise girl," he said. "This should cheer you up a little bit, right?"

Annabeth sullenly took the container of ice cream and opened it, accepting a spoon from her boyfriend. They sat there in relative silence, watching old TV shows and eating ice cream - every once in a while, Percy would steal a bite right off her spoon to try and amuse her.

 

Her smile slowly began to return, but it wasn't quite back yet. It would take time to heal. She leaned her head against Percy's shoulder, her hair probably getting in his mouth. He seemed okay with it, so she stayed there. At lunch, he got up to make some sandwiches, which was part of her plan. Maybe this part would turn out okay.

A few minutes later, eating ham and cheese, Percy patted her shoulder gently. "You're still sad about the plan getting messed up, aren't you?"

He looked at her with soft, wondering eyes and cracks began to spread across the emotional barrier set up inside her, threatening to break it altogether. But she didn't want to just... lose control here in front of him. He didn't need to carry around her baggage for her, So she shook her head.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a calm voice. "I want to help you, Annie. You don't have to hide it from me."

"It's not..." her voice broke, the cracks spreading even further. "It's not your..."

"Let me help," He said soothingly. "I'm here for you."

The barrier almost broke, but she held it back. "I'm okay, Percy," She insisted.

 

She took the next two hours alone in Percy's bedroom, reading books to calm her down. This strategy always worked for her - read a book and you'll feel better afterwards. But even though the emotions seemed to be lessening, it wasn't really solving the problem. She was just pushing down her feelings, not letting them out like she knew she should be doing.

The soft bedsheets distracted her. She kept thinking that one day, when they were older, she'd lay here, stretched out across the sheets with Percy over her. She couldn't get the image of Percy smiling down at her out of her head. Even her heavy-duty classical architecture book written in Ancient Greek just wasn't enough of a distraction. Eventually she gave up, flipping the book over and slamming it down on the bed beside her. She walked out of the room, leaving the book behind.

 

"Percy?" She called.

"Yeah?"

She sighed. "Where are you?" 

"I'm in the kitchen," he called back. "Be right there, Wise girl."

The sound of Percy's feet pounding, and then a loud crash. "Percy?"

She could hear him groaning. "Are you okay, Percy?"

 

A shard of worry escaped through one of the cracks, and she ran to check on him.

She saw him around the corner of the kitchen island and raced toward him, but her foot slipped and she flew forward, skidding forward on her knee and landing right on top of him with a heavy  _THUMP_. Her head collided with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

"Watch..." He groaned and then finished, "watch out."

She smiled into his shirt weakly, feeling her knee ache. "Ugh... Are you - okay?"

Getting through sentences was difficult, and every little twinge of pain made her groan.

"I'm... fine," He said slowly. "Are you okay?"

"I've... had worse." she turned her head toward his face and heard her neck pop. "Percy... your head!"

 

 

There was a huge bruise just above his right eyebrow. "Your knee," he mumbled. He could see her kneecap also had a large purple bruise on it, swelling up as he watched.

Annabeth reasoned that he must have slammed into the island as he fell. She reached out and felt his bruise, watching him wince. "Sorry... Percy."

"It's fine," He replied. "I can almost breathe... again." That only made her feel more guilty.

She slowly picked herself up, pushing herself off of Percy and rolling over to lay beside him, breathing easier now. 

"Ugh... You're really heavy," he said. She didn't think he meant this as an insult, but she smacked his left forearm anyway. "Percy!"

"Oh... Annabeth, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I know," she grumbled over him. "It's fine, Percy."

 

A minute later he pushed himself off the floor with a grunt and held out his hand to pull her up. She took it and shot upwards, back onto her feet.

"Why did - we slip anyway?" she asked him. He shrugged, not knowing why. She rolled her eyes and squatted down to check, but her knee screamed in pain and collapsed under her weight, making her gasp and fall to the floor for the second time that day. Percy shot down and grabbed her, pulling her back up onto her feet.

"Lean against the counter," He grunted. Annabeth braced her elbows against the end of the island, feeling like a sack of potatoes, her injured leg hovering just above the ground to prevent stress on the joint. Percy slowly let go, ready to catch her, and then bent down and rubbed the floor with his fingers. 

"I may have spilled some eggs this morning," he admitted. "That's probably what this is."

Annabeth grumbled to herself, something about stupid boys being too nice and trying too hard.

"At least I didn't break anything, right?" he said in a smaller voice, a little ashamed.

She saw this and nodded. "That's true." She hated making him feel bad - he didn't deserve to ever feel bad again after the eidolons and rejecting Reyna and every other sweet thing he'd done.

She shifted her weight to her left arm and reached down with the other to ruffle his hair gently. "You usually break one or two things at least."

He nodded. "I thought I must've at least cracked the island when I hit it."

"Well, your kelp - head is certainly hard enough," she said with a wry smile and an eye-roll.

He stood up slowly and carefully, not wanting to slip and hit Annabeth's knee. Then he hugged her gently, being careful not to unbalance her. "I'm glad that you're okay, my wonderful girl. I don't know what I'd do if you really got hurt."

"You'd probably help me a much as you could, and protect me from further harm," she guessed, slightly amused by the notion. "I bet you'd carry me all the way to camp on your back if I really needed it."

He nodded. "I would, if I thought of it in time."

 

He backed up against her. The image from earlier flashed into her mind, but she pushed it away - he wanted her to grab on, nothing more. She put her arms on his shoulders and then carefully curled her legs around his waist, and he pushed off the island, taking her with him.

"Where to, Ma'am?" He asked jokingly.

She thought for a moment. "Take me to the bedroom. I want a change of clothes."

He began to walk slowly down the hallway, using the balls of his feet to minimize the bouncing around that Annabeth had to endure. A few seconds later, he reached the door and turned inward, almost hitting the doorframe. He walked along the side of the bed and then stopped. Percy slowly started tilting to the right, towards the bed, and Annabeth realized what he was doing. 

"Don't you dare," she said, but he just continued tipping to the right.

"Don't do it!" but he flatly refused to listen - 

"Percy!" she yelped as her stomach dropped, and the U.S.S. Percy capsized.

 

They landed on the bed with a thump. 

"OW! You are not behaving very well, Percy!" she yelled, her non-injured leg crushed beneath her 120+ pound boyfriend.

"Move your leg! your hurt one!" he urged. "Then I can move!"

She slowly swung her left leg off of him, and he rolled to the left, away from her.

"Percy, you crushed my other leg," she said mournfully, looking down at the bed. Her leg had sunk into the mattress under Percy's extreme weight, and it was slowly rising back up.

He looked over. "Oh... sorry," he said, smiling his guilty smile.

"I ought to revoke your TV privileges," she grumbled, but she was having a hard time staying angry at him. He was doing a surprisingly good job of being a make-believe adult so far, and that made her happy.

 

She was okay with the immature, silly, cute Percy, but at times she would need the serious, hard-working Percy, too. Living with him in New Rome would be difficult, but she knew that if she could control him, then it wouldn't be impossible.

She held on to Percy's shoulder tightly and slipped her new clothes on, then ate some food, along with a cube of ambrosia - they had been left with a full bag of them. 30 minutes later, she was able to put her weight on it without collapsing, and Percy helped her out to the car.

 

They went to see a movie - Wonder Woman - At which she laughed quite a bit. 

"This isn't at all realistic," she said to him, trying not to giggle as she lounged in her seat at the back of the theater, away from the crowd.

"Well, I thought you might like it," he said.

"I do," she quickly replied. "I do, Percy - it's just fun to laugh at, too. That's all."

"Okay," he said, still uncertain. "it is kinda silly. Is Diana even a real goddess?"

Annabeth laughed again, finding his innocent curiosity adorable.

"She's a  _Roman_ goddess, that's what's funny," she snickered.

Percy thought about it and laughed to himself. "They even got the... what was that word? The one for a group of gods..."

She rolled her eyes. "The Pantheon, seaweed brain." 

"Oh, right." He smiled. "They even got the pantheon wrong."

"Yep. She's the Roman version of Artemis - and the goddess of childbirth and women."

"Well, at least they got that part right. She's awesome as a woman and a warrior." He reached over and ran his fingers gently through her hair. "I bet you could beat her, though."

"No," she said teasingly. "She's a goddess, you blockhead."

He surprised her with an unexpected kiss on the cheek. "You are, too... at least in my eyes."

Annabeth tried hard to hide the blush spreading across her face.

 

 

Walking out, Percy looked nervous. "So... Do you wanna go home?" he asked. "I know the plan says that we should go out to dinner today, but..."

As he trailed off, Annabeth knew for certain that something was up.

"Percy?" she asked, "What's at home?"

"Nothing," he blushed, suddenly more interested in the gray sidewalk under his feet.

_Oh yeah._  She blushed, her cheeks mottling a light red.

She remembered now - Percy saw this as an opportunity to have some real fun with Annabeth, something he almost never got to do, aside from a few heated kisses over the empty weekends.

She knew what it felt like - A need to be with someone, as close as possible, and she knew that it could be terrible to try and restrain yourself from it. She'd done it for 8 months, thanks to Hera's little foreign exchange program. She wasn't going to do that to him.

"Let's go out to dinner like we planned, and then... we'll see what happens, okay?" She smiled, trying to show him it didn't bother her, and she  _was_ interested.

 

"Alright," he agreed with a nod, but he didn't look up. Annabeth could tell he still wasn't totally okay with it.

She walked over and pulled his hips against hers slowly, looping her arm around him.

She could tell that he was worried about making her happy, making it romantic and perfect. She didn't want to have to worry about this part, or plan it out. It should just happen, and as long as she was with him, it _would_ be perfect.

"I want you to stop worrying, okay?" she rubbed different patterns across his shoulder gently. "Just... let it happen, my love."

 

Confidence slowly edged back into his face. She could see his emotions slowly relaxing, letting his fears go.

"Alright." He reached around her and pulled her even closer. "C'mon, let's go get some dinner."

 

 

The image from earlier was back - now that she knew for sure that Percy wanted to... be with her, her subconscious was going crazy - painting pictures for her in her mind's eye that made her more excited than she was ready to admit.

 

When they arrived at the classy but laid-back restaurant Annabeth had picked, she nearly ran into the doorway - luckily, she had a boyfriend with quick reflexes.

"Woah," he said lovingly, "Careful."

He studied her face. "What are you thinking about?" he asked accusingly.

She could feel her face flush, her cheeks probably turning as red as cherries. "Nothing, Seaweed Brain," she replied in an even tone, trying to keep her emotions to herself.  _It's not time for that._

 

_But he's sooo handsome,_ her subconscious replied.

_Stop it - maybe later we can... take care of this,_ she told it.

_I don't think so. It won't be enough this time._

 

She shook her head, not believing how fast her thoughts had gotten that dirty.

Percy steered her toward the table with the arm he had around her, making sure she sat down without slamming into anything. He'd had to do that occasionally in the past - she'd be so caught up in what she was thinking about that she'd stop moving; he'd help steer her towards whatever the goal was so that she could keep her focus.

 

 

Dinner was alright.

They ate breadsticks and pasta and Percy made small talk, noticing she was deep in thought. Her brain split into two parts: one taking care of Percy and answering his easy questions, and the other digging through memories and drawing conclusions. She thought back to her conversation with Mrs. Jackson (now Mrs. Blofis, Annabeth thought to herself).

 

Sally had pulled her aside a few hours before they'd left while the boys finished packing Mr. Blofis' bag (and probably talking about the same thing).

"Now, dear," she'd started, and Annabeth had internally taken a deep breath. 

She continued. "You and Percy are at the age now where you're spending more time together. You're a responsible girl, and I know that you'll keep Percy in check. But I think we both know that you're teenagers now, and both of you are going to want to do some things we might not approve of while we're gone."

Annabeth almost freaked out. It had been at the back of her mind, but she  _did_ want to... be with Percy, now that they'd get some alone time. She started to open her mouth in protest, but Percy's mom started talking again.

"It's alright, dear," she said with a little chuckle and a knowing smile. "Paul and I are okay with it. What I want to know is, are you prepared?"

Annabeth thought for a moment and then nodded. "When Percy and I started dating, the kids in the Aphrodite cabin at camp got really excited. Piper was really happy for us too. They all went a little overboard, and they gave us a gift from their mom-" she pulled a polished shell, opening it and showing Sally the small white capsule inside. "I've never taken one, but Piper said that I'd find a new one inside each month when she passed it on."

Mrs. Blofis nodded. "Alright. As long as you're prepared. We don't want you two to go through having children until you're ready for them."

"And I'm not," she replied. "Don't worry, it'll be a while before I'm ready for that."

"Alright," she smiled, "I just wanted to make sure you were ready for anything that might happen before we left."

"Thanks," she replied, hoping the talk was over now.

 

 

"-with peanut butter," Percy was saying as she came back out of her memory.

"Huh?" 

Percy smiled kindly like he knew what she'd been thinking. "Nothing important."

She knew Percy really wanted to be with her, but until his parents had left, she hadn't really thought about it too much. Now she could feel it slowly becoming more important to her, pulling at her more and more. She'd have to be careful about it, not move so fast that her boyfriend freaked out. She wanted it more with each passing second, but she'd have to take it slowly.

Percy had finished his pasta alfredo, which he loved, and had started eating hers for her. She noticed this and pulled the bowl away, not wanting to starve because of her boyfriend's ravenous appetite. She finished her pasta quickly and wiped her mouth with her napkin, ready to go home.

"C'mon, seaweed brain," she said. "Let's head home."

 

 

 

They walked through the door of the apartment fifteen minutes later. Annabeth flicked on the lights and Percy strolled over to the fridge, pouring himself a glass of milk.

"We're almost out of milk, by the way," he said to her. "We'll have enough for tomorrow morning, but we should get some more."

Annabeth sighed. There was already a trip to the store on their itinerary tomorrow, and she wasn't overjoyed about it. "Alright, I'll put it on the list."

 

She wrote  _milk_ on the list, which had been sitting at the head of the kitchen table since Mr. Blofis left it there. Next to the new item in Percy's sloppy handwriting was  EGGS, and also SYRUP, which he'd managed to use up in one sitting with barely any help from her.

 

She went back inside their fort, settling in the blankets and pillows in front of the TV and turning it on. A minute later, Percy crawled in and settled next to her, wrapping his legs in blankets and setting his bowl of freshly made popcorn in front of him.

 

"Whatcha wanna watch?" he asked, leaning back on his pillow.

"Something scary," she said. " _The Sixth Sense_ , maybe?"

He'd seen it before. "Alright, sounds good to me," he said. "It's pretty freaky - are you gonna get scared?"

"Percy, we've been through Tartarus," she said quietly, pursing her lips. "Nothing scares me anymore, except losing you again."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," he said calmly. "And if you get scared, remember that I'm here for you, okay?"

She nodded. "I will."

 

Actually, Annabeth did get scared. When she saw the woman with the cuts on her wrists, and the freaky girl, and especially the shotgun boy, she buried her face in her boyfriend's shoulder, whimpering a little bit. Percy felt such a strong and immediate urge to protect and comfort her that he wrapped his arm around her and held her gently. She couldn't get the image out of her mind - the image of the roof of their fort coming undone as the tent in the movie's had, the disgusting, terrifying face of an _Arai_ hovering just outside. 

"It's okay," he said gently. "We're safe."

Percy knew that Tartarus might've been the worst trial he'd ever had to endure, but it wasn't the scariest. He knew the scariest place in the universe was the human brain. How else could this movie even exist?

Nothing in the world scared him more than the thought that he might lose Annabeth because of his own actions.

"I'm never letting go of you again," he heard her say softly into his shirt, almost as if she'd read his mind.

"Neither am I," he replied softly.

 

When the movie ended, Annabeth nodded to herself. It seemed right - the way a ghost would be the one to help the ghost-seer. It made sense.  _Maybe that's the solution for my problem, too_ , she thought.  _I need someone who can see the monsters_ _, like me_.

"Ready for bed?" Percy asked sweetly.

"Yeah," she replied. She had a vague memory that Percy had wanted to do something before they fell asleep, but she couldn't remember what it was.

"C'mon," He said slowly, taking her hand. "Let's go get ready."

 

They changed into their pajamas, and laid down next to each other.

"'Night," he said.

"'Night," she replied.

They slipped slowly into another world - the world of dreams.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Liked it? Leave a comment with an idea for something that should happen in the next chapter!
> 
> -Whitejj01


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